Schiller testifies, says Apple considered car and a camera, and Samsung's phone's a 'rip off'

Apple's Phil Schiller took the stand this afternoon, wearing a sharp suit, in Apple's ongoing case with Samsung in a California court. He revealed a few hints at Apple's iPhone development and took some solid shots at Samsung.

In terms of Apple history, Schiller revealed that, before Apple began exploring the world of smartphones, it considered making a camera or a car. I'd love to see Apple make either one of those things, but of course they went with a cellphone, and the iPhone is that product.

Schiller also had strong words for Samsung, reportedly saying "copy," "steal" and "rip off" to describe Samsung's work. Objections to his testimony were reportedly overridden. During Schiller's cross-examination, it sounds like Samsung tried to get him to agree that the iPhone's design wasn't entirely original, in that many of the designs included are simply functional, defined by common sense rather than Apple's design prowess. But according to the reports, Schiller didn't give much ground (and he still found room, at least, to correct the cross-examiner's pronunciation of designer Sir Jonathan Ive's last name -- it's NOT pronounced "Ivy," in case you were wondering).

All in all, it sounds like Schiller is doing plenty for Apple's case in the ongoing litigation. He's starting out from a biased point, obviously, but if Apple can convince the judge in the case that Samsung did infringe on copyright, Apple's ownership of the modern smartphone design will be locked down once and for all.

The AllThingsD running commentary notes that Scott Forstall followed Schiller as a witness, but didn't get a chance to say much before the lunch recess. He did recount the story of Steve Jobs barging in on his job interview with NeXT in 1992.